When the World's Reborn
by RitenJeks
Summary: Sam is back from his stint as Lucifer's vessel, but what will his return bring? As the brothers regroup, they find out they cannot escape their past, and the Angels have some work for the brothers.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Sam Winchester stood beneath the flickering light post positioned just off the side of the new residency of Dean's once-upon-a-time love, Lisa Braeden, and her son Benjamin. For a moment he stood, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, looking around until he realized where he was. The light above him flashed one more time and then turned to black, dead in the night. Sam's eyes were drawn to the only remaining source of light, the window with a wide view into Lisa's kitchen.

Sam observed Dean's somewhat strained smile as he talked to Lisa, who was listening attentively. Dean then dropped the smile, wiped his face with a napkin, took a gulp of beer, and with a far less cheerful expression spoke again to Lisa. She looked to Ben and said something to him. He looked at Dean, began to protest, but she cut him off, pointing out of the room. He stood reluctantly and left the scene.

Sam soon realized that tears were stinging his eyes. He quickly buried his head into the shoulder of his jacket, sniffling slightly. "Dean," he managed to breathe out. Dean had listened to him. He had gone to live that life. He had heeded Sam's last wish and gone to live with Lisa, the "apple-pie life" that Sam wanted for him upon his death. But for some reason, Sam had been plopped down smack-bang across from Lisa Braeden's house, given a chance to see his brother once more.

"God gave you this chance," he heard a voice say, making him jump. The flutter of a trench coat in the wind gave away the man next to him. Angel, rather.

"Cas?" Sam asked, breathing heavy after the surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to tell you why you are back." He walked to look in the window of the Braeden residence, and then turned back to face Sam. "Sam, God found reason to reward you. You and your brother nearly single-handedly stopped the Apocalypse. You took control of Lucifer in the end and banished him to the pits of hell. God rewarded you and your brother's efforts by granting you each other once more."

"Why, though?"

"Sam," he smiled for a moment, stubbornly. He walked towards Sam and looked him in the eye. "You don't get it do you?" He laughed, looked to the sky, the ground, then back to Sam. "What did you and Dean do that went against all of the odds?"

Sam looked down at the ground, wrinkling his eyebrows.

Castiel sighed. "Sam, you and Dean used your free will. Although the demons and the Angels forced you into the apocalypse, played you into their plan, you never gave up each other. In the end, you overpowered Lucifer to save your brother. You chose each other over what the Angels told you, over the end of the world, and that was powerful enough to save it."

Sam looked at Castiel funny. "Are you okay, Cas? Since when are you all love and peace?"

Cas laughed. "Since that's what you brought to the world." With another flapping of his jacket, Castiel disappeared from sight, and left Sam looking around confused for a moment.

Though he could not yet understand the ways God worked he decided to take advantage of the chance he had. He walked into view of the window again, watching as the conversation between Lisa and Dean progressed. Lisa looked down and in her eyes, he could see a gleam of tears, building slightly, about to pour over the edge. Dean stood, strode over and hugged her, stroking her hair and whispering something.

"Oh my God," Sam laughed incredulously. "Things have really changed, huh..." He caught Ben looking from the hallway sadly. When Ben's eyes wandered to Sam, he shifted and ducked fast, breathing heavy.

"It's not his place to tell Dean I'm here..." he heaved, crawling out from under the window slowly, slithering like a snake until he was out of view. He stood, let out a breath and brushed off his clothes.

_Now, what to do... _Sam thought, looking to his side and spotting the front door. _There's a start... _he thought sardonically. He walked towards it, stopped, and contemplated a moment. Would his brother react normally?

_Of course not,_ he scoffed, running through the list of things he had to do to prove to his brother that he was indeed himself. With a grimace, he walked to the door and took a breath. This was going to be hard. He pressed the doorbell, knocked. 1, 2, 3. He waited. He went to press it again, bouncing on his feet, and his brother answered the door. "Hello, Braeden... residence..." Dean's mouth hung open. Confusion entered his eyes first, soon followed by anger. "Get the hell out of here you sonofabitch."

Dean went to close the door on Sam, but Sam threw his arm up, a pleading look on his face. "Dean, please, wait! It's me..."

Dean spun back on him. "And how in hell can you prove that, huh? Last time I saw Sam, he was jumping into a Goddamn prison with Satan inside of his body. So if you can somehow show me you're the real Sam, by all means!"

Sam looked down.

"Oh don't give me that puppy dog face, don't you-" he cut himself off, fighting to keep cool. He went inside for a moment, as Lisa nearly collided with him.

"Dean?" she asked, concerned. "Dean, what is it?"

"I'm grabbing some silver!" he snapped, pulling a silver knife from his jacket, which he had hung up for once. He also grabbed a flask of holy water from the inside of his jacket and took some salt from the table.

"What... what for?" Lisa asked, a quizzical look on her face. Lisa looked to the front door, and quickly her expression changed to horror. "Oh my God..." she whispered shakily, covering her face.

"Lisa?" he shouted to her.

"Y-yes?"

"I'm going to have to screw up your walls a little bit. Least of our problems if this isn't Sam." He took the silver knife and breathed heavily, taking a stance and cutting his forearm. He winced, and dropped the knife, dipping his fingers in the blood and painting an Angel banishing sigil on the wall. "If you're Lucifer, you sonofabitch, you're gone." He slapped the seal and a light flashed.

Sam stood there, squinting his eyes and shaking his head. Once he regained his composure, he said, "I'm not Lucifer, Dean, it's your-"

"Shove it." Dean opened the flask and let fly a wave of Holy Water, which made contact with Sam's face. No burning.

"Are you ready to believe me yet?" Sam asked impatiently.

Dean's look faltered, but before he let Sam through, he tossed salt on him, to no effect, and grabbed his arm hesitantly, cutting him, to Sam's displeasure, with the silver knife. No extreme, out of the ordinary, supernatural freak pain. Dean looked up incredulously. "Sammy?" he asked, choking on tears.

"Yeah, Dean. It's me."

"Sammy..." he took shaky breaths, and after a moment flung his arms around his brother.

The Winchester brothers were reunited.


	2. Chapter 1 Ongoing

Chapter 1

"What are you doing back, Sammy?" Dean asked, hands on Sam's shoulders, his eyes scanning him, making sure he was all himself. He had his jacket, he had his eyes, he had his face, he had everything. "God, it's you. I still can't believe it."

Sam laughed and took a quick sweep of the house with his eyes. "And you're the one telling me that. That's a good one, Dean." Sam walked into the house and smiled at Lisa. "Hey, Lisa. How's Ben?" he asked softly. Lisa's face had gone from shock and horror to a look of somewhat confused happiness for the brothers. Lisa started to turn shakily as tears poured from her red eyes, but Ben came through to greet Sam himself.

"Hey Sam!" he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around him. After a moment the boy pulled back, and looked up at Sam. "I heard what Dean and mom were saying. Was the devil really inside of you?" he asked with wide eyes.

Sam wrinkled his face for a moment, his glance flicking around the room. After a second he regained his composure and knelt down. "Yeah, Ben. He was. But he's gone now."

"Yeah! I could tell. The way Dean talked, you kicked his ass!" he exclaimed, smiling widely at him. Sam looked taken aback. Lisa moved forward to take her son back and discipline him, but Sam mouthed, "One moment." She backed away for a second and Ben looked between Sam and his mother. "You know it'd be a good way to pick up chicks!" Ben winked, and Sam laughed.

"Alright, Lisa, I think you can have him back now."

"Hey!" Ben exclaimed, suddenly seeming grumpy. Sam smiled and tried not to laugh. Lisa grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away, dragging him against his will up the stairs.

Dean took a few steps forward and put his hand on Sam's shoulder, somewhat impatient and more confused than anything. "Sam. Why are you back?" he asked one more time, as Sam turned around on him, a smile still plastered to his face. "And why in hell are you still smiling that? Stoppit, dammit. It's freakin' weird."

Sam laughed lightly and looked around the house. "I'm just… elated, Dean. Like, our choice. It wasn't for nothing. It feels great to be back, to be able to see you again. To see that you did this for me. And Lucifer's back in his cage. No Lilith to break him out this time, no Ruby to torque me to the dark side."

Dean shook his head. "Would you just answer the question so I can pop open a beer with you, like we'd always do after a hunt?" Sam looked at him and saw the tears brimming at the edge of Dean's eyes.

"Hey, man, don't cry alright?" Sam sighed. He turned away for a moment and shoved his hands back into his pockets. "Cas came to me before I walked in, you know."

Dean frowned. "Cas, that son of a…" Dean looked down. "The last meeting we had didn't go so well. But if it helps you explain busting outta hell, by all means continue."

Sam turned and looked at him quizzically. "From what I remember you and Cas were more of brothers than you and me." He decided to drop it when he saw Dean look away. "Anyway…" he said, clearing his throat. "Uh. Well, all I know is what Cas told me, so… he uh. He said that it was God's way of rewarding us for stopping the Apocalypse. He said… it was our reward for choosing each other."

Dean laughed. "Wow. There is so much wrong with this situation." Sam looked at him weird.

"Like what?" he opened his arms questioningly.

"Oh, let's see. Like the fact that God was there all along and chose to do… jack _shit?_ All he does is rely on us, he puts his faith in us to end the freakin' Apocalypse. God putting faith in humans. That's the other way around for sure."

"Dean-" Sam started, but Dean cut him off.

"Don't you 'Dean' me, Sammy. You know as well as I do that somewhere out there, there was God, watching us and doing nothing." Sam looked to the ground. Dean turned and stared outside of the front door for a moment. Then slammed it shut. "But I suppose I should thank him," he said sarcastically. "After all, when I think my brother's finally dead beyond reach, he pulls him out. Pluck! Right from Lucifer's cage." 

"Dean, that's all we could have hoped for… all we were relying on in the end was that I would put Lucifer back there in the first place. We had no reason to think I'd be back."

"Yeah well…" Dean searched for words, but couldn't find any. Sam walked over and turned his brother around.

"Dean. We're Winchesters. We'll make it through. At least I'm back, right? Just concentrate on that, and tell God to go to hell later when you're drunk and hitting on Lisa. Alright?" he smiled a knowing smile.

Dean laughed finally, clapping his brother on the shoulder. "Sounds like a plan!" he said, his voice rising with a small amount of excitement as he wiped tears from his eyes. Lisa came back down the stairs after she finished tucking in Ben.

"What did I miss?" she asked, out of breath. The brothers looked at each other, then back to Lisa.

"Nah, nothing nothing…" they both replied at once, shrugging off the question nonchalantly. Lisa looked at them both funny.

"O…kay… I guess you'll be wanting some beers then?" she said, half smiling and motioning towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, that'd be great," Sam breathed, following her in. On the way, he noticed an apple pie sitting on the table.

The irony.

Chapter to be continued…


End file.
